Earlier this week, Microsoft released a short anthology titled Future Visions: Original Science Fiction Inspired by Microsoft, enlisting some of the best science fiction writers to contribute stories inspired by visits to the company’s research labs.

Military science fiction has a long tradition of speculating about the nature of warfare. Greg Bear, fresh off of a tour in Microsoft's Halo universe, seemed like the next Big Thing when it came to combat SF with his latest, War Dogs. And, he delivers an interesting story, but it's not quite the one you expect.

No kidding. This month is just crushingly incredible, when it comes to new science fiction and fantasy books. Including a new William Gibson, Ann Leckie's Ancillary sequel, Gillian Anderson's science fiction novel, Ann Rice's new Lestat book, new Chuck Palahniuk, and so much more. Here are 27 must-read titles.

The second volume of The Mongoliad, the "secret history" epic by Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear and their collaborators, is out now. To celebrate, we've got an exclusive first look at a map that shows the territory that the Shield Brethren travel in the book. Check out the full version below.

It's not even 10:30 in the morning, and I'm already holding an archaic deadly weapon in my hands. I'm in a nondescript warehouse in Seattle, to which I've traveled so that award-winning science fiction novelists can demonstrate how they could cut me in half if they felt like it. Somebody has just pulled a sword out of…

A group of knights travel East towards the lands of the Mongols, in an exclusive excerpt from The Mongoliad Part 1, the group novel spear-headed by Neal Stephenson and Greg Bear. In this selection from chapter 7, the mysterious knight Istvan seems to know more about the Mongols than he's been letting on — and he seems…

Neal Stephenson attempts to talk about swords and medieval battles... only to be told he's not doing it "big" enough, in this new trailer for The Mongoliad Vol. 1, the anthology he and some friends created about a secret history of Eurasia.

The book world has some treats in store for you this month — including a brand new novel in Stephen King's Dark Tower universe, and the first book of Neal Stephenson and Greg Bear's Mongoliad. John Shirley revises and updates his groundbreaking cyberpunk trilogy. There are more jazz-age vampires and Regency magicians,…

The Clarke Awards are always an interesting award to watch, because they're selected by a panel of judges who read widely in the field — and thus, some surprises can creep in. This year's six finalists include one book I've never heard of, and also run the gamut of every type of science fiction. Here's the list:

We mentioned back in May that Amazon.com was going to be going into the science fiction publishing business, and now the mega-retailer's plans are finally taking shape. The imprint will be called 47North, and it'll start publishing new and out-of-print science fiction titles (in print as well as Kindle) in October.

We've been sort of excited to see Project Gutenberg putting up so many classic science fiction stories that have gone into the public domain. But at least one writer isn't thrilled about it — Greg Bear has been involved in a battle with Project Gutenberg over whether stories by Poul Anderson and other authors are in…

These days in Speculative Fiction it's all about the Fantasy; Urban, Epic, or Weird. What happened to all the spaceships? Take heart space cadets, Greg Bear delivers cosmic wonder — and terror — with his latest novel, Hull Zero Three.

Here's an exclusive look at the full, uncropped cover art to Greg Bear's first Halo novel, Halo: Cryptum. You'll notice it's pretty different than the usual Halo book cover. No Master Chief, no Spartan armor. How did this happen?

At its best, science fiction can help people better understand science, explaining new ideas and theories in the context of a thrilling, gripping story. And then there are these 10 utterly ridiculous stories about evolution.

While the publishing industry fights to survive, a group of scifi writers and software developers have struck out on their own. Led by Neal Stephenson, author of Cryptonomicon, the group built an ebook that could make reading truly interactive.